Review: Bristol Rocks#1, Fleece

Well played Synthetica, five bands for a fiver on a wet miserable Sunday night is a great way of fighting the back to work blues.

Alas a change to the start time and a tardy reviewer means the appraisal of Karma Control is based on one song, which is hardly fair but that tune sounded good enough to warrant a trip out to catch them again and see the full show. So apologies to them for the brief mention. The unusually named TYPE” played a confident set: they’re competent players and bursting with a zillion ideas, but are arguably trying to cram too many ideas in to each song. Jah Wobble bass is a real positive, carrying the tunes during the solos, and the drumming was tight with great vocals too. The band have presence but they need to be editing the songs to really hit home. Work in progress for sure but with definite promise of more to come. Stone Cold Fiction delivered an assured set, a 21^st century take on ye olde power trio vibe. Their version of the blues is reminiscent of Taste or Cream, but with a modern sounding groove and 21^st century dynamics, so no tedious extended jams, just sharply paced songs with some catchy riffs and choruses.

If you ever wondered what sort of music Carlos Santana would have made if he’d grown up listening to a diet of British psychedelia and seventies funk, then wonder no more because Jupiter’s Carnival can provide the answer. They played a tight groovy set – including all of the newest recording Within Your Mind – that put a smile a smile on both face and feet. Joe O’Connell’s sang marvellously, melding Lowell George gruffness with Sly Stone falsetto whilst deploying particularly fluid lead guitar. The tunes were uniformly funky with a seventies rock edge; Stax sax and trumpet adding punctuation & colours along with keys that swap between a parping sixties Farsifa sound and an organic seventies Hammond groove. The discipline of the funk means the songs don’t outstay their welcome but are extended in to tasty jams. Life affirming stuff for a miserable January night.

John E Visitc’s amp not only goes up to 11, but it goes beyond that to Gonzo. He and his Experience hit the stage hard from the opening tune as they battered the venue with their all-conquering Stooges in space rifforama. JEV was a man on a mission for sure, throwing shapes (double jointed splits an eye watering speciality), pummelling us with riffs and spitting out kosmic solos plucked from the primeval. As always Dan and Guy provide the launch pad for the sonic excess, rock steady drums and melodic bass leaving JEV free to provide the fireworks. An apocalyptic Jupiter would have been the set highlight had JEV not unleashed new cut Die Rattlesnake Die! an absolutely frantic snake bashing belter of a tune. A pulverising encore of Pistelero rounded off the evening in ear splitting fashion – the Long Tall V delivers again and disappears in to the night.

Photo credit: John Morgan